Ellis and other critics of the system say it compromises defense of the poor because attorneys must advocate before judges on whom they depend for future employment. Ellis said the arrangement is so morally bankrupt that he has approached legal advocacy groups to ask for help reforming Harris County courts.

Students impacted Hurricane Harvey from Texas spend weekend in DCFox5DC

5 p.m. Feb. 17 7-day FOXRAD ForecastFox 26 Houston

Man charged in wife's deadly shootingFox 26 Houston

Costly credit card mistakesFox 26 Houston

Year of the Dog at Asia Society Texas CenterFox 26 Houston

7 a.m. Feb. 17 FOXRAD ForecastFox 26 Houston

Showers to start, breaks of sun to finishFox4

Fatal FBI flaw before Parkland school shootingFox 26 Houston

Museum exhibit dedicated to Sandra BlandFox 26 Houston

Bringing together Harvey survivors & relief agenciesFox 26 Houston

“I've done my bit of talking to people around the country trying to get them to sue (the county), but it takes tremendous resources,” Ellis said.

The county has applied for $4.4 million from the state Task Force on Indigent Defense to launch a public defender office in October. The county's plan calls for phasing in a hybrid system that would combine elements of a public defender and court-appointed attorneys.

The task force has given the county a month to revise its plan. It suggests including all courts, not just those presently proposed. It also suggests expanding the plan's scope of cases a public defender could handle to include more felonies. It also asks for an independent board to oversee the office and limits on the case loads of its attorneys.

‘Trying to kill it'

Ellis accused local judges of circumventing the intent of his law by using a system in which each judge can decide his or her own system of providing for indigent defense. He said resistance from judges has resulted in a potentially fatally flawed public defender proposal.

“They're trying to kill it,” Ellis said.

Judge Mike Anderson, who serves as the administrative judge for the county's criminal district courts, said the judges are not trying to undermine the plan.

“Several courts volunteered, based on requests by the task force in Austin, to put together this pilot,” Anderson said. “We were told to keep it small. They asked us to set up a program so that appellate and trial work could be done on a pilot basis.”

Anderson said he and other judges were surprised to see the task force ask in late May for everyone's participation.

“We in good faith thought we did what they were asking,” Anderson said. He said he is trying to schedule a meeting of the judges next week to discuss expanding the scope of the program.

Ellis also blamed Commissioners Court for the county's slow response to the need for better indigent defense.

“The power of the purse strings is a pretty powerful tool if they decide to use it,” Ellis said. Commissioners Court approves court funding and should use that leverage to compel reform, he said.

Earlier this week, County Judge Ed Emmett, who joined Commissioners Court in 2007, said a pure public defender system does not necessarily yield the best representation.

Input welcomed

Emmett spokesman Joe Stinebaker said Thursday he was confident the council led by Precinct 1 Commissioner El Franco Lee “to investigate the most appropriate actions for Harris County to take to ensure the best possible legal representation” would welcome Ellis's input.

“The energy would be better spent on figuring out how to make this hybrid system work the way that everybody has confidence in it rather than pointing fingers at the judges, Commissioners Court or the senator,” Lee said in a statement issued by his office. “If Ellis will allow this county to work it out and advocate for us to get matching funds, then we would be much better served. It's real easy to pass laws. If it started and stopped at passing laws, the solution would have been reached when he first passed the law.”

Statewide, 82 counties have added public defenders since Ellis' Fair Defense Act was signed into law in 2001, according to information from his office. Many, however, use it only for capital cases.

“This has gone on for far too long,” Ellis said. “I'm embarrassed as a state legislator and as a citizen of Houston and of Harris County that it has taken this long.”